Looking Back Chapter 1
by Erin05
Summary: Josie Shredian comes to Capeside


Rating: PG-13, may get a little less clean though  
Classification: Other, this is not really a romance, though it might turn into one  
Distribution: Anywhere, just let me know.  
Disclaimer: The charectors that were created by Kevin Williamson are not mine. Neither are the lyrics that I might have added to the story.  
Note: Just pretend that the events of season 1, 2, and 3 happened during the gang's 8th and 9th grade year.  
Feedback:Please give me some!Email me at dramaclub01@hotmail.com  
  
  
The Timeline:  
  
1995-1996:8th grade year. Season 1 and 2 of DC happens  
1996-1997:Freshman year. Season 3 of Dawson's Creek happens.  
1997-1998:Sophmore year. Joey and Pacey break up. Henry moves. Joey goes off to a boarding school during the summer..   
March 25, 2001: On Reeve's 21st birthday, he proposes to Josie.   
Fall, 2001: Josie begins her work with domestic abuse victims.   
February 14, 2002: Josie gets married to Reeve in a fairy-tale wedding that's in all the west coast papers and magazines  
June 15, 2003: Josie and Reeve have their first child, Byron.   
May17, 2004: Andie, who has changed her name to Maya Pierson, becomes a new host on The View and begins to get famous.   
Summer, 2004: Josie begins to visit war torn lands and countires where gender aparthied is happening, and begins to work for more and more causes and on a larger scale.   
April 12, 2005: Reeve and Josie have their 2nd child, Autumn-Summer September, 2005: Dawson starts to teach at CHS.   
January, 2006: Maya becomes an anchor for 20/20,and her career skyrockets as she quickly rises through the ranks.   
March, 2006: Josie wins a Oscar for a documentary she filmed during the summer of 2004.   
June, 2006: Josie finishes interior design school.   
November 5, 2006: Josie gets the California Humanitarian Reward in recognition for her extensive chairty work. There is a rumble about plans to nominate her for the Nobel Peace Prize in a few years. People approach her about buying her story rights to make a film.   
December 21, 2006: Jack gets in a horrible car accident. His life hangs in the balance.   
  
  
  
Chapter 1  
December 23, 2006   
  
Josie slowly brought the rented BMW up the drive of her childhood home. Spending 8 years in California had not kept her used to the cold Massusetts winter. She had to make a quick stop at a department store to get the necccessary winter gear.   
  
  
Ah, the advantages of having a master card.   
  
  
Josie had taken a flight here in one of the family's private jets. They'd landed at an airstrip just outside the town. Josie had decided just to drive to Bessie's place in her car, so she could just see how much Capeside had changed in the 8 years since she'd left. It hadn't changed at all, with the exception of a few buildings that were either gone or had been remodeled slightly.   
  
  
Josie checked herself in the mirror. Her face was smooth, her blue eyes were sparkling, and there was an overall cheeriness about her. Definitely not like Joey Potter. Her hand went up to her hair, silky blonde strands cut in layers which ended above her shoulders. Kind of like the haircut that Georgia had gotten during the second season of Ally McBeal. Joey Potter had long mousy brown hair that was tied back with an old shoestring to keep her hair out of her face. Joey Potter wouldn't be wearing a perfectly cut black blazer over a silky blue Gucci dress with handmade Italian shoes. She'd be donning a man's workshirt, worn out blue jeans, scruffy sneakers. All, of course, courtesy of T.J. Maxx. Nope, definitely nothing about her shouted Joey Potter. Joey Potter didn't exist anymore. In her place was Josie Sheridan, a rich, beautiful mother of two with the perfect husband. She had everything, while little Joey Potter had nothing.   
  
  
  
God, why did she need to make sure that she wasn't Joey Potter anymore? Being here made her feel 15 years old again; the poor pitiful girl that had to choose between 2 guys that who thought she was some trophy that actually deserved them. Well, she was NOT 15, she was NOT Joey Potter. She WAS 23, soon to be 24, and she WAS Josie Sheridan.   
  
  
Why did she have so much hostility to Joey Potter? Maybe because she was spineless, pathetic little girl who couldn't appreciate anything from other people. How she'd secretly long to have Jen's strength, or Pacey's charming humour, or Dawson's optimism, or Andie's direction. Joey had been jealous of them, unable to really be their friend. They'd all tried, but they had never penetrated her icy exterior. Dawson and Pacey had come close, but that was all. Her heart had been too bitterly cold to really accept their love. Joey Potter was something that Josie tried to bury as deep as she could. Josie prayed that she succeeeded; hoped that that bitch no longer existed. She was glad that she no longer had to be her. Glad that she wasn't a piece of gargbage anymore.   
***   
May 20, 1998   
  
Joey Potter took a deep breath.   
  
  
Pacey sat on her bed, while Dawson leaned against the bureau.   
  
  
"I called you guys here 'cause I had something to tell you," Joey said, nervously tucking a strand of her hair behind the ear.   
  
  
"What is it?" Dawson asked. He shot a petty glare at Pacey, to which Pacey rolled his eyes.   
  
  
"I'm going to a new high school next fall. It's a prep school, and I got accepted there on a full-scholarship." Joey dropped the bomb.   
  
  
"OHIMIGOD! Joey, how could you do this to me? Us? How can you leave Capeside! I wanted a chance..." Dawson bit of the rest of what he was going to say.   
  
  
Joey rolled her eyes. "To what? Win me back like I'm some piece of property? I thought you promised we were just going to be friends after that whole argument we had last winter. Guys, this is a wonderful oppurtunity for me. I really have a chance now, and I'm not going to waste it."   
  
  
Dawson remained silent. Tears began to well up in his eyes."It's the argument we had, right? God, Joey, please don't leave just because we had a fight 6 months ago!"   
  
  
Pacey tried to brighten the mood. "Hey, it's not so bad. What's a hour away? Joey can stil visit us from Boston, or we can visit her."   
  
  
"Umm, the school isn't in Boston. It's in... um ... Calreorfonia," Joey muttered intelligibly.   
  
  
"What?"   
  
  
"It's in California." Joey informed them.   
  
  
Pacey's cheerful expression faded.   
  
  
Dawson fainted and fell to the floor with a thud.   
***   
  
  
  
It all went dowhill from there. Dawson kept begging Joey not to go. Bessie and Andie were pretty encouraging. Pacey, well, he just got closed off. Jen seemed to get hostile. Jack actually gave her a book about California. The summer before junior year went by pretty quickly, and soon Joey found herself at the bus station.   
***   
  
  
August 30,1998   
  
"Bye, guys," Joey said, hugging Bessie, Jen, Jack, Andie, and Pacey. Dawson and Jen had not shown up.   
  
  
"Don't foget to call us when you get there," Bessie reminded her.   
  
  
Joey held up two crossed fingers. "Cross my heart and hope to die."   
  
  
"You'll call us once a week, right?" Andie asked, on the verge of tears.   
  
  
"We're still going to keep touch?" Jack said. He would really miss Joey. They'd become pretty close.   
  
  
"Always," Joey promised.   
  
  
"Aww, come on Potter. You know your going to meet all these wonderfully interesting prep school kids and you'll forget all about us," Pacey predicted.   
  
  
"Witter, I'll probaly choke by the end of the semester and come back a sad, burned out shell," Joey said.   
  
  
"Naww, can't see you failing at this," Pacey said, surprising everyone by running his finger along Joey's jawline.  
  
When Joey could finally find her voice, she broke away from them and started walking toward the bus. "I'll see you guys soon."   
  
***   
  
Josie stared at the house she grew up in, then began to walk towards it. To her surprise, she saw a man sitting on the stoop. Was it?   
  
  
"Pacey!" Josie cried and walked faster to get to the man.   
  
  
"Potter," he said flatly.   
  
Josie's eyes grew wide as she saw the state her former friend was in. He looked much older than 24; unkept, bitter, with stumble lining his face and his lips set in a scowl.   
  
  
"So, umm, what are you doing here?" asked Josie uncomfortably.   
  
  
"I was just hanging out. So, what are YOU doing here?" Pacey asked with a sneer.   
  
  
"Well, Bessie told me about Jack. I just wanted to be here," Josie replied.   
  
  
"That's funny, since you haven't wanted to be anywhere near Capeside at all in the past 8 years. You left and didn't want to look back, Potter," Pacey shot back. "After 8 years you come back, but of course it's just 'cause Bessie guilt-tripped you into coming."   
  
  
Josie couldn't rebunk that statement since it was the truth. "Umm, I don't go by Potter anymore. Name's Josie Sheridan. Got married almost 5 years ago this February." She showed him her big diamond ring for emphasis.   
  
  
"Wow, you really did cut off ties to your old life, JOSIE SHERIDAN. Look at ya. You really moved up in the food chain." He regarded the expensive clothes she was wearing. "What do you do?"   
  
"Right now I'm a housewife, but I'm applying to different interior design firms. I also work for a charity that aids victims of domestic abuse and I filmed documentaries in war torn lands over the summers. I did one in 2004 that won me an Oscar last March." Josie said proudly.  
  
  
"Wow, impressive. Guess your adoring hubby picks up the tab for you, right? You're filthy rich, and you did nothing to earn it except hooking some golden little rich boy. You wanna know what I do? I'm a deputy. Yep, I'm exactly what Dougie used to be before he died back in the Christmas of '97. Old Man Witter pratically forced me into filling Dougie's place, so now I'm 24 years old in a job I hate, still living within a 2-mile radius of my parent's, and wondering where my self-respect ended and self-loathing began," Pacey vented.   
  
  
"Look, I'm sorry that your life didn't go the way you wanted to, but that's your fault, not mine."   
  
  
"Just chalk it up to me being drunk, okay, JOEY?" He laughed cruelly. "By the way, what's with the peroixde head? I thought the day I'd see Joey Potter go blond would be the day I became Dougie. Whoops!! Guess that already happened." He giggled to himself and took a long chug from a flask.   
  
  
Josie's mouth curled in disgust as she stole one last pity-filled glance at Pacey and moved on to annouce her arrival to Bessie.   
  
  
  



End file.
